Write From Inspiration But Need Discipline?

Waiting for inspiration to hit doesn’t always lead to a high volume, or even steady flow, of songs.

We recently got a question in our newsletter survey that resonates with a lot of people who want to write from inspiration.

But if there’s no inspiration that happens, they feel like writer’s block has set it.

Q I write from inspiration, which makes my songwriting spotty and not very disciplined. I’d like to have more songs – how do I create a more disciplined songwriting approach?

A I had a poetry mentor who always said, “create time for the muse to show up.” I know. It sounds like something a poetry professor would say.

And, at first, I admit, I was a little hum-buggy on the whole concept. Appointments for muses seems a little unicorn-like for this INTP. I imagine myself just sipping on some Shiner waiting for pixie dust to part the clouds and “Muse” to show up with six pack.

But, he was my mentor, so I tried it. And, to my surprise it worked sans the six pack.

I “set an appointment” to this very day!

So what did he really mean? And how do you make it happen?

Even though you might rely on inspiration, if you develop a discipline around your writing the muse will appear more consistently.

And, you won’t have to abandon inspired ideas that hit you out of the blue.

The key is to not only find ways to casually be inspired, but to have time and space to act on those inspirations as well.

Below are a few ideas.

CREATE A DISCIPLINE

So how do you create a discipline?

1. Decide on a time of day, and perhaps day of week, you can consistently be present for with no distractions or potential interruptions. And, it doesn’t need to be long. Start with 15 minutes.

Maybe you have 30 minutes before you head off to work, or 20 minutes before you go to bed each night.

– You end up creating a discipline of writing as well as setting an appointment.

– You have ready-made ideas for those instances when you have additional time to work a bit more on a song.

3. Give yourself the next day’s assignment during the last 2 minutes. For example, if today your object writing was about a chess piece, assign yourself a worn leather baseball tomorrow.

BE FLEXIBLE – LET INSPIRATION HAPPEN

The main goal is to create a discipline for the muse to come. Once she starts showing up you’ll be amazed at the ideas and productivity. You may need to extend her visiting hours!

If inspiration does hit, drop your object writing and go with the inspiration.

– Is one of the ideas you wrote down previously pulling at you? Go ahead and work on it, and get the song going!

– Did something amazing hit you during your object writing? Abandon and go with the idea. This is your appointment, so your time to use!

Some Image Prompts To Get You Started

Use the gallery below to get the inspiration flowing!

I wrote a song from one of the images here (it’s on my album Seco Sessions and is called “Your Pink Dress”)

7 EASY STEPS TO WRITE A SONG
– Pick a photo, preferably one you’re drawn to
– Start writing whatever pops into your head
– Is there a recurring theme in what you just wrote?
– Start there and write a chorus
– So what’s the story that the chorus is commenting on? That’s your first verse.
– What happens next? That’s your second verse.
– How does it all resolve? That’s your final verse (we’ll worry about bridges later)